Month: March 2016

I was put off early by the term luxury and American cars used in the same sentence. Granted a lot of years ago; I worked on the line at the St.Thomas assembly plant. We built at the time Pintos and Mavericks. Maverick had an LDO option, Luxury Decor. What it meant that in my Zone One of chassis we got cars that where just a painted shell. The first job on the line was sound deadener, I had to glue 2 sets of sound deadener together and then glue and rubber plug those into the car. What a mess, roof deadener was to heavy and would not stick. The bolts for the heaters through the firewall wern’t long enouch so only 4 of six could be faastened and the heater or A/C was crooked. The screws to put in the windshield wiper motor were not long enough to go through the dual deadener so only 3 out of the 4 could be put in. Accelerator cable holes didn’t line up in the firewall deadeners so we just ripped out about a 10 inch corner to get the steering column and other firewall entries that come through that area. Again bolts not long enough to get through all the deadener so most emergency brakes in with 2 out of 3 bolts. I was only 19 but my ideas of american luxury came from real world experience. My first new car when I worked at Ford building Pintos was a 1971 Volk Super Bettle. Ever since for 40 years I have bought 5 year old well looked after european cars. I am thankful to the first guy who bought them, looked after them and took the depreciation hit for me. Buy em cheap, maintain them well and ussually get about 7 good years of driving in a car with all the toys. It has worked for me and they are really luxury cars. 1971 Porsche 911T, still have it bought at 5 years old. 2004 Audi 5000 Avant, 1987 Audi Quatrro Turbo, 1994 Jaguar XJ6 Soveriegn, 2006 Jagaur X-Type, still driving, 2004 Jaguar XK8 convertible still driving. Looking now for about a 2010 XF to replace the X-type and that may be the end of my car buying days.

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The upside of all this was that I got to sample a plethora of machines while mine was being repaired. The final incident came in the spring of 1986. This time there was only one person to blame for the calamity and he didn’t work in a motorcycle factory in Munich or drive a Jaguar. It was me. At the time I was an instructor for the Star Rider organisation. A pupil and I stopped at a give-way sign, he proceeded to set off, I looked behind then followed – but the pupil had changed his mind and I ran into the back of his bike. Smashed headlight and embarrassment for me, no damage for him.

“The facility is part of our ongoing commitment to generating new digital economic growth through technology innovation,” David Liu said. He is Huawei’s director of government and media affairs for Southeast Asia.

USAA had close to the median number of complaints for auto insurance to state regulators in 2018 relative to its size, according to the National Association of Insurance Commissioners. It had fewer than the median number of complaints about home and life insurance.

My believe is always this – if a person buys a brand new 528i and sells it off within 1-2 years, losing RM100k despite still having warranty ahead, then that car has to be faulty in some ways. No one of sound mind would be so stupid to get rid of the new car that desperately. I bought a pre-reg E90 and within 2 years, the engine box failed big time. After multiple repair and troubleshoots, the engine still was not as smooth as before. I traded in at a great loss, but no regret. I pray for the new owner of my E90. Now I am happy with a brand new F30.

It’s a minor tragedy of sorts that Chris had to go through the transmission transplant at all, insofar as the failure was completely the product of Toyota’s desire to create an artificial differentiation between trim levels. There’s no reason the Matrix XR couldn’t have come from the factory with a sixth speed and another $15 added to the sticker. But if the automotive press is willing as a whole to overlook Porsche’s even more ridiculous and mean-spirited decision to saddle the 987-generation Cayman 2.7 with a five-speed despite that car costing approximately three times what you’d pay for a Matrix of any strip, then I suppose we have to let Toyota get away with doing a five-speed in the base Corolla wagon.

Delivering more relaxed ergonomics and more creature comforts than the GT edition, the GTL weighs a bit more and is slightly slower in acceleration. Dynamic Traction Control is a standard feature to help control the 160 horsepower inline-6, as well as its 129 ft/lbs of torque at just 5250 rpm. BMW’s ABS Pro is standard.

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